After more than 18 months of unbundling of the Power Holding Company (PHCN), the retirees of the government agency are still crying foul, describing it as mere "dissecting" and "wholesale approach to sharing the common patrimony of Nigerians."

This is even as they lamented that despite the assurance that the unbundling and privatisation of the successor companies, the Power Distribution Companies (DISCOs) and Power Generating Companies (GENCOs), the expectation of improved electricity supplies had not been realised.

They called on the Federal Government to review the privatisation process, just as they demanded that President Muhammadu Buhari should not shy away from reversing the process if convinced that it was a mistake.

The President of Nigerian Union of Pensioners Electricity Sector, Chief Temple Ubani, who spoke to The Authority, pointed out that some countries who had made similar mistake, reversed the process by acquiring the privatised agency.

They further urged the Federal Government to liberalise investments in the power sector to enable individuals with the financial muscles to invest and stimulate competitiveness instead of the Government selling off its own assets.

He said: "The unbundling to us simply means that PHCN was dissected into different companies. All with a view to preparing for the privatizing which we in the labour see as wholesale approach to sharing the common patrimony of Nigerians because to us, that is what it is.

"We did not really agree with the process of selling and what they did or did not do before selling. We actually advised against it at various fora, in the Villa and else where.

"What we predicted would happen is what Nigerians are experiencing right now because there has not been much improvement in the power sector in Nigerian even after the so called privatization.

"We actually advised for liberalization, meaning open up the sector and let investors come in and invest instead of selling what we already had. And we told the past president then that if electricity sector is not functioning well, it is not that the workers are not doing their job well. But because government refuse to fund or invest in the sector.

"There is no difference and we are happy that the situation is still as it were. So, we ask government to have a rethink and possibly buy back the company, after all Yola Electricity Distribution Company has been bought back by the government.

So from my own perspective, the situation is not better than what we had." Chief Temple, who also cited that most of the disengaged staff of the PHCN were yet to receive their entitlements, added that it was unfortunate that Government trained the staff but only to waste the resources by retiring them.

He stressed that the Government should endeavour to review some of the negative decisions taken in the power sector, adding that steady electricity supplies constitutes a major catalyst for economic development. "Probe is in the hand of the government and they know when best to do it if only they have intentions of doing it. And for review, I completely say yes and I will call for it any time any day.

"Even the Nigerian Union of Pensioners had even put in writing to the immediate past government that they should not be shy of buying back the electricity company because we have found out from the other countries where this type of mistake was made and it didn't take them time to buy back the companies and review to correct the mistakes.

www.authorityngr.com/2015/10/PHCN-retirees-cry-foul-over-privatization